Standing by her father as masquerading men and women came to congratulate her, Robin's hands were being smeared with greed. Some whispered sweet lies, and some cackled their monstrous ploys, but the theme that was common through their hollow words, was their plans to undermine and eventually usurp more and more power from the king.
'They look at me like a tool for them to use, a proxy for their nasty plots...' Glancing across the smiling faces with a fake smile on her own lips, Robin for the first time was seeing the true nature of Athenian nobility.
From shaking hands with other dukes to subtle attempts of seduction by the duchess and their daughters, she could see right through their actions and the false praise offered to her. 'Are they being more open to me because they think I must be complacent with my father's plans?'
Looking to her side at her balding father, her expression soured for a moment, but noticing his gaze turning to her, she quickly corrected it with a smile.
"Is something wrong, Robin?" He asked, wiping her sweaty forehead with a sweat-drenched handkerchief.
Watching his every action, Robin could see through his facade of happiness. He knew his death was coming in a few moments, and the dark knight glare from a corner had him frozen still. With death breathing down his neck, her father knew his fate was sealed and there was nothing he could do about it.
However, the one thing he was mistaken about was thinking he could plead, but Robin already knew that would lead him nowhere.
"Nothing's wrong, I've just been wondering where's mother," she asked, keeping her voice lower pitched to hide the fact that she was a girl.
"Rudeia, she..." Gulping at the question, Roswalt scratched the back of his head–visibly unsure what to say. "She's said she'll come late! But I'm sure she'll be here any second now!"
In reality, he had no clue, for she'd been missing since last night. Moving her attention away from her father, Robin continued to greet the well-wishers. Some dragged along their slaves with them–the only ones without a mask to hide their faces as they spewed poison to Robin.
'Do they think I can't recognize their slaves and who they belong to? And whose idea was it to make everyone wear masks to a wedding?' The concept was far too strange for her, especially since only dukes and duchess were invited to the wedding in the castle. With a glance alone, their identities were bare, so why make a failed attempt to hide it?
'Don't stare...' Thought the ex-hero, beyond embarrassed and yet going along with his lover's request. The devil fae loved his feminine charm, and in a slitted dress that half exposed his legs, she was on the cusp of biting her lips or screaming from his charm.
'Why is he dressed like that?' Robin wondered, obviously unaware of a lewd deal struck between Liliyana and Amedith.
'Just a few hours, and then...' Thinking about what awaited him, helped the holy warrior deal with the embarrassment. Besides, although he wouldn't admit it, he was slowly getting used to moving around in that dress.
"Robin, I don't have all day," Raven said, trying to get Robin's attention back on himself.
"O-Oh! S-sorry...' Robin yelped, before subconsciously just shaking Raven's hand.
"Alright then," wasting no more time, Raven turned to her father and went from dastardly to a menacing, almost devilish smile. "Time to butcher the pig!"
He laughed in the face of the man and all he could do was simply watch the monster mocking him in his face.
'NO! THIS CAN'T BE–' Roswalt tried to run, finally, but to his horror, a little girl behind him tripped him on his face.
Yelling out in pain as his nose broke into a bloody mess, he glanced up at the girl–only to find out it was none other than the princess, Tia. Expecting her to show him mercy, he grabbed onto her dress, but disgusted at her father touching Tia, Robin kicked his hands off her dress.
A ripple of shocked gasps echoed through the ballroom, but before the duke and duchess could cause more commotion, the guards whipped out their blades and brought them right to their necks.
With their lips sealed, silence took over the ballroom, the servants and slaves were quickly taken away by the castle staff and amidst that process, the sound of clapping began approaching from the mezzanine that looked down onto the ballroom.
"I've always hated extremes, but I suppose you can't rid an infection without culling it at the source, can you?" The nobility looked in horror as Milo and Viola appeared at the mezzanine, and after everything that they'd discussed with Robin, they knew exactly what was coming at them.